Former LA County Sheriff Lee Baca addresses the media as his attorney Nathan Hochman, right, looks on at the Federal Courthouse in Los Angeles on Wednesday, March 15, 2017. He was found guilty on three charges. (Photo by Ed Crisostomo, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Each trial, conviction and sentence handed down to members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department since 2014 exposed deep flaws within the nation’s largest law enforcement agency of its kind, observers and civil rights activists said this week.

The years-long legal saga, they said, sent a message to the department that no one was above the law, not even former Sheriff Lee Baca, who was found guilty Wednesday of obstruction and other charges in connection with an FBI probe into corruption and excessive use of force inside the Men’s Central Jail. Baca was the 10th member of the department, and the highest ranking, to be convicted of such charges. The court cases and ensuing headlines forced Los Angeles County officials to scrutinize the department and jails and push for reforms.

“For many years, the LASD appeared to take pride in the fact that they were feared by the community,” said Ronda Hampton, a vocal critic of the department and the way deputies handled the case of Mitrice Richardson, a 24-year-old woman who went missing from the Malibu/Lost Hills sheriff’s station in September 2009 and was found dead 11 months later. Hampton has said the Sheriff’s Department failed to take Richardson’s disappearance seriously.

But she agreed that the nearly six-year-long federal effort to expose inmate abuse and cover-ups by deputies in the jails has brought change to the Sheriff’s Department.

“What I think has changed most is that the citizens of Los Angeles are aware of the level of corruption that exists (and existed) in the department and, most importantly, people are not as fearful to point out misbehaving officers,” she said. “When Mitrice Richardson went missing, myself, as well as her family and friends, were expressing our concern about the corruption in the department and we were mocked and ridiculed; that has changed, as now the community at large is more aware of the fact the department was not always acting in the best interest of the community.”

On Thursday, the ACLU of Southern California applauded the Baca verdict and what it called positive steps taken by L.A. County officials to reform the policies and practices within the Sheriff’s Department. The ACLU had been documenting abuses in the jails for years, which prompted the FBI investigation. Since then, a long-awaited civilian oversight commission was established to push reforms within the Sheriff’s Department. The commission was approved by the Board of Supervisors in November, two years after it was first proposed.

Supervisors also approved new restraining procedures for inmates in August and expect quarterly updates by the Office of Inspector General on the Sheriff’s Department, including grievances by inmates, officer involved shootings and use of force.

“But those steps, along with the convictions of Baca and Undersheriff Paul Tanaka, do not mitigate the continued need for reform,” said Peter Eliasberg, chief counsel of the ACLU of Southern California, said in a statement.

He cited overcrowding and unsanitary conditions that continue to plague county jails, as well as the number of inmates with mental illnesses who may not be receiving the treatment they need.

“Moving forward on these reforms will make the Los Angeles County jail system a model for the nation,” he added.

But while change needs to continue, the public also should not judge everyone within the department, said Ron Hernandez, president of the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, in a statement.

“As we have said over and over again, today’s hardworking deputies should not be judged (or pre-judged) based on the past actions of others just as our current sheriff and executive staff would not want to have those evaluating their actions automatically assume they are continuing the misdeeds of Baca and Tanaka,” Hernandez said.

“Our focus will now turn to working with the department in support of hiring the best candidates possible to be deputy sheriffs and district attorney investigators,” Hernandez said. “History has taught us that hiring standards for law enforcement should not be relaxed.”

Deirdre Fike, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, said in a news conference after the verdict on Wednesday that the dark chapter for the Sheriff’s Department is coming to a close. She said she was confident in the leadership of Sheriff Jim McDonnell, who was elected to lead the department in 2014.

Baca, 74, retired in 2014. A sentencing date has not been set. Baca’s attorney, Nathan Hochman, plans to appeal.

But Hampton, who is currently assisting in the disappearance of Elaine Park, a missing 20-year-old Glendale woman last seen around Calabasas on Jan. 28, said she hopes McDonnell will focus on continuing to improve the department. Still, she was critical of his decision to allow the department to shell out $300,000 to change the color of the belt buckles.

“What needs to happen next is that Sheriff McDonnell needs to focus more on citizen complaints and concerns and less on perfecting the uniforms that the officers are wearing,” Hampton said.

“While attire can be important in carrying out one’s duties as an officer, I am more concerned for my safety and the safety of the community at large than I am about the quality or color of a belt buckle,” Hampton added.

Hampton said that more changes are needed.

“Sheriff McDonnell needs to wake up and inform himself of the needs of the community or the department will remain stagnant and not grow from the negative tone that was set under the leadership of Lee Baca.”

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